Sakineh Behjati, a Christian believer, was sent to Lakan Prison in Rasht to serve her sentence.
Sakineh Behjati, a Christian believer, was sent to Lakan Prison in Rasht on Saturday, April 17, to serve her sentence. Ms. Behjati was sentenced to two years in prison in August 2019.
According to HRANA News Agency, the news agency of the Human Rights Activists in Iran, on Saturday, April 17, 1401, Sakineh Behjati, a Christian convert, was sent to Lakan Prison in Rasht to serve her sentence.
Iman Soleimani, the citizen's defense lawyer, told HRANA in this regard: "My client was summoned to serve his sentence before Eid by Branch 1 of the Evin Courthouse to serve his sentence. Upon submitting a defense bill, a one-month extension was requested from the Sentence Execution Branch, considering his residence in Rasht and the fact that he has a minor child. With the approval of the Sentence Execution Branch, he was finally summoned again on April 15, 1402, to serve his sentence. With my follow-up, his request to be transferred from Evin Prison to Rasht Prison was approved."
Sakineh Behjati was previously interrogated along with three other Christian believers in February 2019, following the presence of security agents at her home on charges of "propaganda against the system and society and collusion against national security." After her personal belongings and documents were confiscated, she was told that she would soon be summoned to court.
Ms. Behjati was summoned to Branch 10 of the Rasht Revolutionary Court by phone in May 2020 and, after being informed of the charges, was granted bail of 500 million Tomans. On May 15, due to her financial inability to post bail, she was transferred to Lakan Prison in Rasht and on May 21, her bail was reduced to 200 million Tomans and she was temporarily released from prison until the end of the proceedings.
Sakineh Behjati was finally sentenced to 2 years in prison by the court in August 2020 on charges of "acting against national security by forming a house church and propagating against the system by preaching evangelical Christianity."
On February 10, 2021, he was summoned to Branch 1 of the Criminal Sentence Execution Unit of Evin Prosecutor's Office by a notice to execute his prison sentence.
It is worth noting that despite the fact that Christians are recognized as a religious minority by law, the security services follow the issue of Muslims converting to Christianity with particular sensitivity and deal with activists in this field with force.
The treatment of Christian believers in Iran is taking place despite the fact that, according to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, everyone has the right to freedom of religion and to change their religion with conviction, as well as the freedom to manifest it, individually or in community with others and in public or in private.
Source: HRANA
